Asleep

A fascinating look at a bizarre forgotten epidemic from the national bestselling author of The American Plague. . In 1918 a world war raged and a lethal strain of influenza circled the globe. In the midst of all this death a bizarre disease appeared in Europe. Eventually known as encephalitis lethargica or sleeping sickness it spread worldwide leaving millions dead or locked in institutions. Then in 1927 it disappeared as suddenly as it arrived. . Asleep set in 1920s and '30s New York follows a group of neurologists through hospitals and asylums as they try to solve this epidemic and treat its victims-who learned the worst fate was not dying of it but surviving it.